oregonlive.com
BOISE -- One of the so-called Portland Seven will join members of two other U.S.-based jihad cells to testify against a Saudi graduate student accused of setting up a Web-based network to recruit terrorists and jihad fighters.
Ahmed Bilal is scheduled to testify with others that they were inspired by jihad videos they watched on Web sites run by University of Idaho student Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, according to federal prosecutors. Members of jihad cells in New York and Virginia also are expected to testify during the eight-week trial that opened Wednesday.
But Al-Hussayen's attorney told jurors that just because Al-Hussayen supports Muslim battles in the Middle East and Chechnya, that doesn't make him a terrorist.
"He is not an angry Islamic fundamentalist," said defense attorney David Nevin. "He doesn't hate the United States. He doesn't hate Western values."
Al-Hussayen, 34, is charged with three counts of terrorism and 11 counts of immigration fraud.
Posted by Suzanne at April 15, 2004